The Shifting Politics of Identity 281- One of Voll’s types of response, the individualist style of action, is not further
discussed in the chapter. Why do you think this is the case? Is identity
construction necessarily a form of social engagement? What are the meaning and
role of the individual in the framework of modern Muslim identities? - Muslim reform has commonly been understood as a process of renewal or return
to the original spirit of the faith. However, it may be claimed that every renewal is
also an invention. What elements of return, and what elements of invention, do
you discern in modern reformism? - This chapter suggests that the uniqueness of Muslim identity as conceptualised
by Khan was a collective right. Does the individual disappear in this framework?
Discuss one other Islamic reformist in the light of the same question. - Which differences do you perceive between reformists and Islamists with respect
to identity formation? Probe their different conceptualisation of universals and
particularities, and discuss the implications this may have for state formation. - Traditionalist scholars appear more concerned about the individual than their
reformist or Islamist counterparts. How could this be the case? What does their
concern with the individual mean, and how does it relate to identity construction in
modern egalitarian states? - Do these observations imply that the attitude of the traditionalist ulama could be
more compatible with a modern focus on the individual than that of the reformists
and Islamists?
Notes
- A number of North African scholars, beginning with Abdallah Laroui, have identifi ed
this bifurcated critique to examine the crisis of the modern Arab intellectuals
(Laroui 1976; Hanafi 1996; Hamil 2002). - The evolutionary thesis is not fully represented in his Khutubat, but the emphasis
on the immutability of the laws of God is clearly present. - This book appeared in English translation under the title A Short History of the
Revivalist Movement in Islam (Maudoodi 1972). - See also Adams’s and Brown’s analysis of this direction in Mawdudi’s approach.
Brown also links this to an earlier Indian reformist, Shibli (Adams 1976; Brown 1996). - Similarly, and equally convincingly, Binder has argued that Qutb, another leading
Islamist, has resolved this dilemma by relying on a device from literary theory and
subjective consciousness. Developing the idea of a visioning (al-tasawwur), Qutb’s
exegesis appealed to the need for attaining understanding by way of a total vision
(Binder 1988: 185). - At the time, Afghanistan, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan, Syria and the
People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen signed the document (Artz 1990: 216).
According to Kelsay, Pakistan signed without reservation on the basis of a
reformist approach to Islamic law (Kelsay, in Little et al. 1988). - Islamist movements themselves were not consistent in their ideological
commitment. Mawdudi supported the candidature of Fatima Jinnah in the 1965
presidential elections, departing from his extremely conservative, and naturalist,
view of the role of women in Muslim society. He argued on the basis of a
traditionalist juridical principle of choosing the lesser of two evils, and the right of a
political leader to deduce new rulings just like the early caliphs had done, to justify
the vote for Fatima Jinnah against Ayyub Khan (Sayeed 1966; McDonough 1984: